Qur'an 30 for 30
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Juz' 27 with Dr. Nazir Khan
Dr. Omar Suleiman and Sh. Abdullah Oduro, joined by special guest Dr. Nazir Khan, explore gems from the 27th Juz' of the Holy Quran.
Transcript
This transcript was auto-generated using AI and may contain misspellings. I want to remind everyone that it is the 27th night and a night that could very likely be Laylatul Qadr. To please exert yourself in du'a and to exert yourself in ibadah and to consider this blessed night inshallah to be one in which you make a donation to Yaqeen Institute inshallah so that we can continue to provide free quality content biblilahi ta'ala that is to the benefit of everyone inshallah ta'ala. So again it's the 27th night, a night of salah, du'a, and dhikr and sadaqa biblilahi ta'ala so please do inshallah ta'ala consider supporting Yaqeen. And with that inshallah ta'ala I want to bring back Dr. Nazer Alhamdulillah Al-Ra'meen from Canada, the safer side of the border, inshallah ta'ala, always led by the very competent Justin Trudeau. May Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala be with us and you all but you know we inshallah we'll see what happens down here too but JazakAllah khair for being with us Dr. Saad. JazakAllah khair, Assalamu alaikum. Sheikh Abdullah as always JazakAllah khair, we're gonna miss you with your face palms. Oh now you got me. Alhamdulillah, it's been a pleasure Alhamdulillah Al-Ra'meen. So inshallah ta'ala, just these last few minutes, subhanAllah we get to Juz 27 now and this is a powerful Juz and it's one that brings about a great amount of joy for some and something for us to look forward to biblilahi ta'ala as we love one another and joke with one another here and we talk about the blessing of faith. There is the reminiscing of the people of paradise in this Juz. And before I get to that inshallah ta'ala, right now we're in Surah Mufasal and the Surah Mufasal mean the frequently disconnected. Most of the ulama say it starts from Surah Al-Hujurat, some say it starts from Surah Taf.
So frequently disconnected by the Basmana, by the Bismillah Rahman Rahim in the beginning of the Surah and also frequently disconnected in that the ayahs are generally shorter in these Surahs as well. The benefit of that is what our mother Aisha radiAllahu ta'ala said that if the first verse to be revealed was do not drink alcohol, the people would have said wallahi we could never get rid of alcohol. And if the first verse to be revealed was do not commit adultery, then the people would have said wallahi we will never leave off adultery. But instead Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la started off the bulk of Meccan Quran before these laws came were these Surahs, these short Surahs that make up the latter part of the Quran, not even the latter half, the last four juz of the Quran. And Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la in this has mentioned, frequent mention of the hereafter, frequent mention of Tawheed, of monotheism first and then the hereafter and ethics and morals and faith until Iman settles in the heart, until faith settled with them and then came the other laws that make the demands. And so what that tells us is that if we really spend time with these last few ajza of the Quran and we affirm their meanings in a strong way, then it becomes easier for us to accept the commitment that we are asked to make to Muhammad Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam that we spoke about last night with our dear Shaykh Yasir Fahmy in every way possible. And so that includes commitment to the ahkam, to the rulings, to the judgments of the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam, commitments to the more difficult commitments that we are supposed to make, being ready to accept those difficult commitments out of a sense of obligation because we would have formed the spiritual foundation that is really embedded within these last few ajza, these last few chapters of the Quran. And so a couple of ajza ago, we mentioned the conversations between the people in paradise
and the people in hellfire and some of the regrets and some of the blame that gets assigned between the people in hellfire, the people in paradise saying, inqittal aturdeen, you almost led me astray. These are some things that are present in the last couple of ajza that we covered. Here we start off with Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la showing us the reminiscing of the people of paradise in the Torah and the way that they are celebrating amongst themselves, how Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la brought them from a place of misguidance to a place of guidance, how Allah brought them from a place in which they were being mocked to a place in which they are constantly being showered by the blessings and the praises of the angels, how they went from a place of being persecuted in Mecca or being persecuted wherever they are or challenged, not necessarily persecuted, but subjected to certain forms of oppression and aggression for being Muslim. And now they're strolling in the gardens of Jannah as believers celebrating with one another. And as they're reminiscing, they come to the conclusion, famannaAllahu alayna wa waqana adhabas sumoom, that this wasn't us. This was Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la showing his blessing upon us, favoring us and removing us from the punishment, despite offenses that we committed that were worthy of punishment. And so praising Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la, thanking Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la for the blessing of being saved and the blessing of being rescued. And SubhanAllah, that was the ayah. Now Aisha radiAllahu anha talked about that Surah Mufasal, that these were the surahs that settled themselves in the heart, that prepared the hearts of the companions in Mecca that were just as instructive as the persecution and the character building that came through the insults of Abu Jahl and Abu Lahab, the Quran that was being revealed in Mecca that prepared their hearts.
And Aisha radiAllahu anha once read this ayah all night long. MannaAllahu alayna wa waqana adhabas sumoom. SubhanAllah, Uroo ibn Zubayr radiAllahu ta'ala anhu, he said that I came to visit my aunt Aisha radiAllahu anha, and she was my maternal aunt. And I found her standing up and she was reading this ayah in salah and she would remember Allah and then she would make dua and then she would weep. He said so I stood behind her hoping she'd take note of me, but she kept on reciting this ayah over and over again. Tad'u wa tafki. She would call upon Allah and she would cry until I left and I went to the marketplace and I did what I had to do and I came back and she was still reciting that same ayah, that same ayah. MannaAllahu alayna wa waqana adhabas sumoom. There's so much about it, but I want to tie a theme inshAllah ta'ala together and look at the theme that's in these few surahs. We'll find in the same juz in surah al-Hadid, man thalladhi yuqridu Allaha qardan hasana fayu da'ifahu lah. Who is the one that will spend a beautiful loan, that will give a beautiful loan to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, and Allah will multiply it. Man yuqridu Allah yu'jza ghadam. Whoever spends today, gives today, will find their compensation tomorrow. And this surah talks about, or this juz starts off with the reminiscing of the people as they are witnessing those blessings from Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala in al-jannah. And of course Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala in the same juz ties in what? Surah ar-Rahman, fa bi ayi ala'i rabbikum a'tu kadhiban. Which of the beautiful signs of your Lord will you deny? Which of the favors of your Lord will you deny? And in surah ar-Rahman, what does Allah give us? These lofty descriptions of jannah. Lofty descriptions of jannah. These beautiful descriptions of paradise. So the juz starts off with the reminiscing in paradise, the gratitude to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala for that paradise, and then you get into these long beautiful descriptions
of jannah and all of its features. And how does Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala call you to the beauty of paradise? It's really powerful because surah ar-Rahman, Allah calls you to observe the beauty of the creation that you can. To imagine the beauty of the creation that you can't observe. That you can't. So I'm going to say that again. So if you look at surah ar-Rahman, there is a beautiful discourse and flow about the heavens and the earth, about everything from the trees and the sky to the fruits that are on your plate. Everything is elaborated on so beautifully in surah ar-Rahman, ar-Rahman the most merciful. And the first favor that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala mentions of course is that he taught the Quran because that is the greatest blessing, the blessing of guidance. And as Allah elaborates on the beauty of these signs and these favors of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala upon you, Allah calls you to observe them and then to try to imagine the blessings in al-jannah, the favors in jannah that you would never be able to grasp. Because no one could comprehend what is in jannah, no one could comprehend its scenes. We can simply wish for them and we can trust that the one who has made the beauty that we can observe so stunning certainly has prepared something that we can observe that is far beyond our imagination and that is worth striving for. So you have the reminiscing of the people of paradise and there are strong themes of al-jannah throughout this. Then I want to talk about one more thing insha'Allah ta'ala, one more theme that I find in this juz' and insha'Allah ta'ala Sheikh Abdullah will take it from there in the beautiful way that Sheikh Abdullah knows how to take it insha'Allah ta'ala and elaborate further on this theme. In this juz' you have surah an-Najm where you have a surah that is so powerful, so powerful
that when the Prophet ﷺ recited surah an-Najm, all of the polytheists in Mecca made sujood, they were captured by the moment and they made sujood, they prostrated. Some of the Muslims were in Abyssinia and because of that large prostration of the people of Mecca, the polytheists of Mecca, some of them actually made their way back because they had heard the people of Mecca had embraced Islam because as the Prophet ﷺ recited this surah, the people fell in sujood with the exception of Umayyad ibn Khalaf, that arrogant man who took some dirt and he wiped it on his head according to a narration. But the point is that this surah captured them, the beauty of the Quran, the combination of the elements, it was a moment where they were moved and they fell in prostration. So that was their moment and I want you to pay attention to their moment. They had a chance where they could have come back to Allah and embrace the implications of that sajda in the long term and found themselves amongst Ibadur Rahman, amongst the servants of the most merciful and those who are amongst the sajideen and found themselves on a different side of history altogether. That was their moment. Allah ﷻ talks about the moment of the Prophet ﷺ in this surah. What was the moment of the Prophet ﷺ? Jibreel ﷺ, shadeedul quwa, thumirratin fastawa, seeing Jibreel ﷺ in all of his magnificence, in all of his glory, taking up the entirety of the heavens and the earth, the entirety of the sky was taken by the presence of Jibreel ﷺ. He had the entirety there. And as Jibreel ﷺ had the entirety of the heavens and the earth covered and his wings were spread out, the Prophet ﷺ talked about the wings of Jibreel ﷺ and the gems and the pearls coming down from those wings.
What a magnificent sight that the Prophet ﷺ would only get to see twice, once in the beginning of his revelation and the second time on the night of Islam al-Mi'raj. But the moment of the Prophet ﷺ was when he saw Jibreel ﷺ thumirratin fastawa, completely free of any defect in his creation, rising to the top and then Jibreel ﷺ approaching the Prophet ﷺ. Fakana qabaka wa usayni awadna, subhanAllah, so close to the Prophet ﷺ. And the Prophet ﷺ embracing the mission in the midst of his moment. And by the way, how beautiful is it that this shows up in the 27th juz of the Qur'an, right? When there's such an emphasis on Jibreel ﷺ and Laylatul Qadr, and Allah ﷻ if the 27th night could be Laylatul Qadr. But the beautiful description of Jibreel ﷺ filling the heavens is in this surah. So that was a moment for the Prophet ﷺ. Then you have, what's the very next surah? So they rejected that moment, right? They were moved by what they could not see, but they heard the Qur'an and it was powerful and they were captured and captivated and they could have become people of Qur'an, but they pushed it away. What comes next? Allah ﷻ talks about al-Qamar, surah al-Qamar. The moment that the Prophet ﷺ observed the splitting of the moon. They challenged the Prophet ﷺ, even though the Qur'an is a greater miracle, they challenged the Prophet ﷺ that if you could split the moon, we would believe in you. The Prophet ﷺ splits the moon and they observed the splitting of the moon as clearly as the Prophet ﷺ observed Jibreel ﷺ in the horizon, but they still rejected. They still rejected. Hence surah al-Hadid, أَلَمْ يَأْنِي لِلَّذِينَ آمَنُوا أَن تَخْشَعَ قُلُوبُهُمْ بِذِكْرِ اللَّهِ Isn't it time for those who believe to soften their hearts to their remembrance of Allah? وَمَا نَزْلَ مِنَ الْحَقِّ وَلَا يَكُونُوا كَالَّذِينَ أُوتُوا الْكِتَابَ مِنْ قَبْلِ فَطَالَ عَلِيهِمُ الْأَمَدِ
فَقَصَتْ قُلُوبُهُمْ وَكَثِيرٌ مِنْهُمْ فَاسِفَلُونَ Don't be like those people who had a moment where their hearts were softened. They could have believed, they could have turned back to Allah, but they let a delay pass. The time between that moment and making the commitment as a result of that moment passed, so their hearts hardened once again and they found themselves amongst the rebellious transgressors and inshAllah ta'ala with that, I'll pass it on to our dear Shaykh Abdullah. JazakAllah khairan. Bismillah, wa salatu wa salam ala rasool Allah wa ala alihi wa sahbihi wa man wala. Rabbish wahli sadri wa yasli amri wahlun wa qadratan min lisani yaqqawhum qawli ya rabbil alameen. As long as we are living, we still have the chance to remember the graciousness of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala upon us as human beings, as people that Allah has created and placed on this earth for an ultimate purpose inshAllah which Dr. Nazer will speak about. And fulfilling that purpose subhanAllah, from fulfilling that purpose is reflection. That is a means for you to constantly think about why you're here. That's the beginning stage. That's the first thing you need to do is firstly reflect on what you have been given, reflect on what you have used from what you have been given, how you used it, and then from there your heart pours out to the creator of it, of those things that you have been given. And as Shaykh Omar mentioned earlier in the verses just previously, verse number 16 and 17 is what we plan to cover in the chapter of Al-Hadeed where Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala is asking this question to the believers. It's an admonishment to the believers. SubhanAllah, you find that Ibn Mas'ud mentioned that this verse came to us after we received revelation as an admonishment from Allah after four years of us being Muslim, of the message of Islam being prevalent amongst the Muslim ummah. So seeing that it is an admonishment and it is a question to remind you, to ask you, are you going to be someone that is turned back? Have you not seen enough of the signs as Shaykh Omar mentioned about the moon and as was mentioned
by Shaykh Yasir a couple of days ago, that we look at these signs and we see that it is a means of Allah's expression on this earth for us. But what do we do about the recognition of those signs? First thing, do we recognize them, acknowledge that they are from Allah and after that acknowledgement, it demands something from us and that is the devotion to him in different elements and ways of manifestation in our lives, primarily from the five daily prayers and the five pillars of Islam and the etiquettes of Islam. But again, this question is asking, Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala is asking them, Has the time not come for those that believe, has the time not come for those who believe for their hearts to be humbly submissive at the remembrance of Allah? So when we say the remembrance of Allah, primarily that is the Quran al-Karim. It is the reading the Quran, the word of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala and letting that permeate your heart or trying your level best to, when those verses are recited, you ponder over the meanings of the verses. You ask people of knowledge about those meanings. You try your level best to exemplify and act out and actualize the meanings of the verses and that is where the heart becomes soft. As we talked about sharha al-sadr earlier, the heart becomes soft with the remembrance of Allah. And even the remembrance of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala could be even more than that from the actions or being around any elements of remembrance of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, such as you listening now into this program is a form of turning into the remembrance of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala to increase yourself in your actions and ponderance of His greatness. Then Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says after that, an takshaa qulubuhum li dhikri Allah wa ma nazala minal haq and what he has sent down from the truth.
And some scholars mention that that is the Quran being specification after generality because what he has sent down is the Quran. What he has sent down is the message to the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam. So in other words, when will it be? When will the time come that your heart comes soft and remembrance of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala? All of us as people that acknowledge that we have a connection with our Creator and with our Maker. We know that we make mistakes, but the most important thing here is when will you say to yourself, I'm going to make a change? When will you say to yourself, I'm going to make an effort to transform? Not I'm going to make an effort to be motivated. Motivated is the only beginning stage for transformation. From motivation to transformation is the bridge or road or sabir of discipline. So when have we made that connection with Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala and promised ourselves that I'm going to make that step to be a motive, to be disciplined in order to get closer to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. Then Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala mentions, wa laa yakoonoo kal lazeena ootoo alkitaba min qabla fa taala AAalayhimu al-amad fa qasat quloobuhum. And then he says, and do not be, and let them not be like those who were given the scripture before and a long period passed over them so their hearts became hard. So the previous nations had the message, but the message, because we were human beings, human beings, we have our desires that can either pull us a direction or we fight and control those desires, manage those desires and keep them in a way that is beneficial for our nafs and our soul and our afterlife to where it's beneficial for us in this life as well. So when we're seeing that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala is talking about the previous nations that neglected the message over a long period of time, as time went on, they did not turn
back. They did not go back to the dhikr to remember Allah. As time went on, we were neglectful of it. But what happens? Your desires will always be there and will pull you to a certain direction that will cause you to neglect initially to where you may reach the level of, as they say, dhikr. compound ignorance to where you may say that I don't even believe that there's an existence of a creator as I used to. That was something that only dealt with culture. That's not really what real life is about. It's not something that's universal for all people. And that's where Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala is reminding, do not let them be from that genus or class of people, if you will. Because Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala is giving the characteristics and signs, which is so beautiful in the Quran. He gives you usaf, he gives you characteristics of people for you not to take on that etiquette or that moral practice. Rather, take on the practice of the characteristics of the people that believe in him. Then he goes on to say, subhanahu wa ta'ala, فَطَالَ عَلَيْهِمُ الْأَمَدُ فَقَصَتْ قُلُوبُهُمْ وَكَثِيرٌ مِّنْهُمْ فَاسِقُونَ So over the time, as time has went on, you know, people left off their prayer, they left off reading the book of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. There's an exchange, brothers and sisters, there's an exchange. When you do not get close to the message of Islam, the message of Allah, whether it's through prayer, whether it's through taking good companionship, whether it's reading the Quran, whether it's even just having, you know, being bound to honesty, being honest and trying to change your ways, if you will. Of that which you know is bad, your heart becomes hard. And we've spoken about this numerous times. It's important to have ihsan, muraqaba, monitoring yourself. When you find the salihin and the people that were of righteousness from the prophets, the first class of them, the companions and the prophets, you see that they were always individuals that turned back, inaba, turned back to Allah when they made a mistake, not if, but when, such as the companions, when they would make the mistake,
what made them companions is that they turned back to Allah when they made the mistake. Ridwan Allah alayhim. Then Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala continues on to say, wa kathirun minhum fasiqoon, and know that many of them were the fasiqoon, many of the people from the previous nations because of their neglect over the long period of time, when they did not turn back to the dhikr and the remembrance of Allah, to where their hearts could have khashya and khushur, the khushur of the heart, which further was exemplified through the limbs. Then Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala gives a beautiful, beautiful verse, which is a beautiful analogy, which he gives numerous times in the Quran. When Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says, i'limu anna allaha yuhyi al-ardha ba'da mawtiha, know that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala is the one that gives life to the earth after its death, qad bayyanna lakum al-ayati la'allakum ta'qiloon. Verily, we have made clear to you the signs, perhaps, should be of those who are mindful. So he gives an example of bringing life to the earth and in other verses of the Quran, after the earth was made barren, but it once had life. So when we make that analogy of our hearts, that have been given life, this life of recognition of God and his presence and recognizing his oneness and trying your level best to do so, to exemplify that through prayer and different actions. But then there may be a time where you step away from that worship, you step away from prayer, you step away from good companions. And your heart becomes hard. But Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, this verse is a verse of hope. It's a verse for you to remember. i'limu anna allaha yuhyi al-ardha ba'da mawtiha, subhanAllah. That he brings the life back to the earth after it was dead and barren.
Your heart can become dormant and hard, but know that there still is what is called the fitrah, the natural inclination that we have that can always be activated. But it's up to you to make the effort to activate it. And when you do that, Allah blesses you with the tawfiq. And ending here, this beautiful verse is a verse that subhanAllah you find particularly to scholars that when they talk about the tawbah and the repentance was none other than Fudail ibn Ayyad and Abdullah ibn Mubarak. And they mentioned this verse was the verse that subhanAllah, they came back to Islam, dare we say reverted or converted. Fudail ibn Ayyad is a well-known scholar, well-known scholar of the past, subhanAllah, he was someone that they said had his statements, he was someone that was a zahid, he was someone that was aloof from this worldly life. He did not cling to it. And subhanAllah, Abdullah ibn Mubarak even mentions when Fudail ibn Ayyad passed away, qad dhahib al-huzn. He says, you know, when he passed away that sadness left the earth because Fudail ibn Ayyad always would admonish himself when they'd see him, he would always have a face of being sad because he always think about the akhira and he always look at his mistakes. And he used that as a motivation to make priceless statements to the salaf, to the companions, to the scholars of the past. But Fudail ibn Ayyad was someone that was a highway robber, if you will, he would catch the hujjaj and he would rob them, rob, he would rob them, Fudail ibn Ayyad. Until one time, subhanAllah, he mentions a story of how Fudail ibn Ayyad was going to meet someone of the opposite gender. And he was climbing over the fence to go and meet her, to where when he heard the verse being recited, alam ya'nil al-ladheena aamanu an takhshaa qulubuhum li dhikrillah When he heard this verse, he said, al-an, qad an ya rab, qad an, he said, the time is now, the time is now. That verse hit him.
The verse hit him to where he left and he stayed bijuwar al-haram and he lived around the haram and he was someone that was known as a scholar, well known scholar of the past. And Abdullah Mubarak, his story goes on, mashallah, Abdullah Mubarak, his father had a garden and he used to be someone that would party, for lack of better words, to where he, you know, what he would do, it was very attractive to the people. Long story short, when he heard this verse as well, he was someone that said, he was asked the question of why, what made him aesthetic, made him leave the worldly life. He mentions this story and it was upon hearing this beautiful verse that made him, you know, change. And that's what we leave with. There's still an opportunity for all of us to turn back to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala is asking you that question. When will that time come for you? And only you can answer that question. BarakAllahu feekum. Wa salamu alaikum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuhu. Allah yabarak feeku shaykh. JazakAllah khair. Alhamdulillah wa salatu wasalamu ala rasool Allah wa ala alihi wa sahbihi wa man wala. So this juz, the 27th juz, is a juz that is familiar to the hearts of so many Muslims, right? It has so many passages in this juz that evoke deep emotions within our hearts. And one of the verses that we've often heard quoted again and again throughout our lives is the verse that talks about the purpose of life. And that's mentioned right at the beginning of the juz, right at the end of Surat al-Dariyat, where Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says, Wa ma khalaqtul jinna wal-insa illa liya'budoon. I have not created the jinn and the human being except to worship me, except to come closer to me with their acts of worship, their acts of prayers and supplication, and all the natural actions that we do for the sake of pleasing Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala become acts of worship of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. And if you think about it, you know, there's certain fundamental questions, the big questions of life that every single human being has to come to terms with.
Every human being has to have, you know, a way of making sense of these questions, whether they're religious or not religious, they subscribe to some explanation for these questions. And what are those big questions of life? Those questions include things like, why am I here? What makes my life worth living? What's the point of all my suffering in this worldly life? What's the point of enduring all of this? What's the meaning behind it all? And what does it mean to live a good life? You know, so there's the spiritual questions of life, the existential questions. Then there's the moral questions about how to be good and how to avoid bad and what that all means for us. And then there's intellectual questions of life about questions of how can I use my mind to contribute, to invent, you know, to leave something productive behind in this world when I've left. And these are questions that every single human being wonders about. And SubhanAllah, the beauty of Islam is that these are all beautifully explained right in that message of Tawheed, that message of our journey towards Allah Subhanu wa Ta'ala, the oneness of our Creator. And it's something that the Quranic scholar, Ar-Raghib al-Asfahani, he mentions the three purposes for why Allah Subhanu wa Ta'ala created the human beings. Three reasons why Allah Subhanu wa Ta'ala brought the human beings into existence. Number one is Ibadah, which is mentioned in this verse, the worship of Allah Subhanu wa Ta'ala, our acts of devotion to come closer to Allah Subhanu wa Ta'ala, building our relationship with Allah Subhanu wa Ta'ala. And number two is Imara, Imaratul-A'ud, building and constructing on this earth, you know, using our intellect to develop something positive and productive on this earth. And number three is Khilafah, our role and duty as custodians on this earth. And Imam Ash-Shaltabi is one who says that our duty, our role as custodians is in establishing the Muqasid, spreading the objectives of preservation of religion, of life, of family, intellect, and property.
So we have these goals of Ibadah, worship of Allah, Imara, developing the earth, Khilafah, our moral custodianship, and these correspond exactly with those three domains of life that we talked about. The spiritual questions, the intellectual questions, and the moral questions. The spiritual questions are tied to Ibadah, the intellectual questions are tied to Imaratul-A'ud, the moral questions are tied to our duty as Khilafah. So the beauty of Islam is it gives us that message that answers and ties together all of the questions that the human mind finds, that beset the human mind. And so we get that powerful message about the purpose of our existence in Islam. And then right after Surah Tadhariyat, we go to Surah Tuttur. And in Surah Tuttur, we go from looking at the purpose of our existence to looking at the origin of our existence, the cause of our existence. In this beautiful passage in which Allah Subhanu wa Ta'ala mentions, Am khuliqoo min ghayri shayyan am humul khaliqoon? Am khalaqoo assamawati wal-ard? Ban laa yuqinoon. Are they ones who were created from nothing? Or did they create themselves? Did they create the heavens and the earth? Rather, they have no yaqeen. They have no certainty. And Jubeir ibn Mut'im, before he became Muslim, he said that when he heard the Prophet ﷺ recite these verses, kaada qalbi an yatir, he said, I felt like my heart was going to fly out of my chest. The power of these verses, this passage, SubhanAllah, it's speaking to the cause of our existence of how we know that Allah Subhanu wa Ta'ala is the one who brought us into existence. And Ibn Taymiyyah mentioned something very profound, which is Allah Subhanu wa Ta'ala is not giving us an argument to convince us of something we don't already know of. In fact, the Quraysh, they believed in the existence of Allah Subhanu wa Ta'ala. Rather, Allah Subhanu wa Ta'ala is giving us a set of questions that are awakening our fitrah, which Shaykh Abdullah mentioned, our natural inclination towards Allah Subhanu wa Ta'ala.
They're probing us to do some soul searching and to live up to what we say. When the Quraysh said, we believe in the existence of God, they didn't live up to that in how they, in worshipping Allah Subhanu wa Ta'ala alone, in accepting the guidance of his messenger. And so one of the lessons that we get from this passage is that there's such a thing as behavioral atheism, where somebody can be a theist, they say, I believe in God, but it doesn't manifest itself in the way that they live their life. It doesn't manifest itself in their actions. So we have to ask that of ourselves. When we say that, I believe Allah is all hearing and all seeing, does that prevent us from committing sins? Does that prevent us from attaching ourselves to the dunya and favoring something in the dunya over our relationship with Allah Subhanu wa Ta'ala? And the questions in the surah, they continue to mount as the Qur'an is causing the human being to probe the depths of his or her own soul, until it gets to the conclusion of those questions where Allah Subhanu wa Ta'ala says, Am lahum ilahun ghayrullah? Do they have a God, a Lord other than Allah Subhanu wa Ta'ala? And one of the ways of understanding that, that the concept of ilah, Ibn Taymiyyah mentions, it's that which is the most beloved to you, that which is dearer to you than anything else. So is there something dearer to us than our relationship with Allah Subhanu wa Ta'ala? Is there something more precious and more beloved to us in this life that is more valuable to us than our relationship with Allah Subhanu wa Ta'ala? Whenever we're tempted with sin or disobedience, and we know what the right thing is to do, and we're tempted with something, we have to ask ourselves that question, Subhanallahi amma yushrikoon. Glory be to Allah Subhanu wa Ta'ala above that which they associate with Him. And so that's the powerful lesson that we get about our existence from Surat al-Tur. So we see the purpose of our existence, Surat al-Dhariyat, the cause of our existence in Surat al-Tur, and then in Surat al-Qamar we have a verse which tells us about the rule of our existence, the fundamental rule of our existence,
inna kulla shay'in khalaqnahu biqadr. Verily, everything in existence Allah Subhanu wa Ta'ala has created with divine decree, with qadr. And I want to mention something about Laylat al-Qadr, because we know this as the night of decree, and there are narrations which mention such as the narration of Abdullah ibn Abbas radiAllahu anhu, and we have a whole article on Laylat al-Qadr, if you look at the Yuppin article, it goes into detail about this. But the narration that mentions that this is the night on which the divine decree from Allah Subhanu wa Ta'ala descends concerning everything that's going to happen in the coming year. The angels have the writing with them. There is a set of our fate that is written with Allah Subhanu wa Ta'ala, everything that's going to happen, written with Allah Subhanu wa Ta'ala. And then there is a record with the angels that the angels descend with on that night, of everything that's going to happen for the coming year. And Allah Subhanu wa Ta'ala mentions, feeha yufraqu kullu ammin al-hakim, that on that night, every matter is conclusively decided. And Imam al-Aloosi, rahim Allah, mentions in his tafsir, that means that after that it's finalized, it can't be changed. Whereas before that, the Prophet Muhammad Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam says, al-du'a ya ruddil qadr. That du'a has the ability to alter the level of the writing that is with the angels. It can change that decree that is with the angels. So think about this. Why is there this focus, this virtue of Laylatul Qadr, making du'a to Allah Subhanu wa Ta'ala on this night? What's the significance of it? And what does it have to do with the fact that this is the night of divine decree? There's a profound connection here, which is that this is our last opportunity that we have before that qadr is downloaded from the heavens. Downloaded from the heavens, everything that's going to happen for the next year, all the occurrences of prosperity or calamity that are going to happen in our lives. This is our last chance to make du'a to Allah Subhanu wa Ta'ala, to forgive us of our sins, to change our qadr for the coming year. This is our last chance for Allah Subhanu wa Ta'ala to forgive us
and wipe away those sins, and to change those calamities to prosperity. To remove a misfortune that could befall us in the coming year. And so that's why there's that importance. That's one of the wisdoms of that importance of seeking out the night of qadr, to make du'a to Allah Subhanu wa Ta'ala on that night. May Allah Subhanu wa Ta'ala enable us to reach the Laylatul Qadr and to obtain its virtues and to make du'a on that night. Allahumma innaka afoo an tuhibbu al-afafa fa'afwanni O Allah, You are the most forgiving. You love to forgive, so I beseech You to forgive me. May Allah Subhanu wa Ta'ala accept from all of us. Dr. Nazer, I have to say that the Laylatul Qadr article, you were a lot better than your co-author. Alhamdulillah, we had three authors, Sh. Ibrahim as well. Oh, sorry, one of your co-authors. Yeah, it's a team effort, alhamdulillah. May Allah bless you. It's a beautiful article that we have the blessing of working on together. Alhamdulillah, Ibrahim. And JazakAllah khair, Sh. Abdullah, for reminding us that Allah Subhanu wa Ta'ala gives life even to dead land, so surely Allah Subhanu wa Ta'ala can revive our hearts on this night. We ask Allah Subhanu wa Ta'ala to revive our hearts, to grant us His forgiveness and His pleasure. Again, I want to remind you all, inshaAllah ta'ala, of a few things. Number one, keep us all in your du'a, inshaAllah ta'ala, in this night and all the remaining nights. Number two, inshaAllah ta'ala, if you feel inclined to do so, inshaAllah, this is a night of ibadah, to consider your last sadaqah to yakin, inshaAllah ta'ala, on this night, biidhnillahi ta'ala. And number three, inshaAllah ta'ala, we will have ibadah ur-Rahman tonight, inshaAllah ta'ala, at 2 a.m. Eastern Time, so please do join. I look forward to seeing you then. And JazakAllah khairan to Dr. Mouser and Sh. Abdullah. JazakAllah khairan. Wa salam alaikum. Wa salam alaikum.
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